Clinicopathological Significance of MTA 1 Expression in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Metastasis associated gene 1(MTA1) is one of the most deregulated molecules in human cancer and leads to cancer progression and metastasis. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the correlations between MTA1 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We searched PubMed, Springer, Science Direct, Google Scholar and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for relevant articles. For statistical analyses, we used R3.1.1 software. The fixed or random effects model was employed based on the results of the statistical test for homogeneity. Results: Seven studies involving 660 NSCLC patients were included. The proportion of MTA1 overexpression with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was 0.53(95%CI: 0.43-0.62) in NSCLC patients; 0.47(95%CI: 0.40-0.55) in age <60 years and 0.52(95%CI: 0.34-0.70) in age ≥60 years; 0.5(95%CI: 0.41- 0.62) in males and 0.51(95%CI: 0.39-0.62) in females; 0.59(95%CI: 0.48-0.69) in squamous cell carcinoma (SC) and 0.57(95%CI: 0.46-0.67) in adenocarcinoma (AC); 0.39(95%CI: 0.23-0.56) in well-differentiated tumors, 0.44(95%CI: 0.37-0.51) in moderately differentiated tumors and 0.55(95%CI: 0.37-0.51) in poorly differentiated tumors; 0.48(95%CI: 0.36-0.60) in clinical grade (III-IV) NSCLC and 0.75 (95%CI: 0.69-0.81) in clinical grade (I-II) NSCLC; 0.58(95%CI: 0.45-0.71) in T Stage (T1/T2) NSCLC; 0.68(95%CI: 0.49-0.82) in NSCLC patients with lymph node positivity and 0.51(95%CI: 0.43-0.58) in NSCLC patients with lymph node negativity. Conclusions: These results indicated that MTA1 might be a valuable biomarker in the diagnosis of NSCLC. MTA1 overexpression was significantly associated with age ≥60 years, gender, histopathological type, clinical grade (I-II), T stage (T1/T2) and lymph node positivity in NSCLC patients.